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Issue:May 2010/Other Stuff/Lcawte goes to Holland
In this post, , founder of the BrickPost writes about his extended trip to the Netherlands. ---- Hi Guys, some of you may noticed I disappeared for a while? Not on IRC, not on the wiki (except I popped up for 10 minutes each day at the weekend!), where was I? Holland. And I'm going to tell you all about it.. Tuesday Date: 6th April 2010 Off to Holland today. Home's a bit hectic, panicing to make sure I get to the airport on time, I was more concerned that my manager/cover admin/representative, was ready to deal with my hectic job across Wikia. I mean, 10+ wikis (yeah, yeah, I know Ajr =.=) to watch, one including Recipes.. thats alot of work! Then, saying my goodbyes on IRC, double checking as much as possible. Then I put on my scout uniform, grabbed my rucksack and jumped in the car. An hour drive to the airport, booringg.. saw alot of police at the Service Station :S We then arrived at Gatwick Airport, in London. Met up with the other scouts and explorers that were also going on the trip, waited around chatting about err... I cant remember.. stuff.. then off through secruity, which wasnt too fun, as I, and most other people were wearing hiking boots, I had to take them off, along with my belt, after going through the metal detector once.. I then got searched.. that was rather freaky. Finally, I was clear to go through, met up with the others in my group of 6, and then we went and waited by some shops. There was loads of them, I mean seriously, you've just gone through security, where they confiscate any liquids over 100ml, then you can buy flammable liquids and all sorts! I'd buy a cheap plane ticket just to go shopping for the day, if I wanted to go shopping.. We then headed to board the plane, passport checked, good, through, and walking down the gate towards the plane. We boarded an Easyjet Airbus, which was rather cramped. After what felt like ages waiting, we taxied to the run way, lurched fowards, then we were in the air. Unfortunatly, as soon as the plane took off, I got a serious headache, not something you want to remember if its your first time flying. We flew up and across London towards the River Thames, where I saw the O2 Arena, and that scene you see on the start of Eastenders. We then flew along the river until we hit the sea, and turned towards the Netherlands, that was pretty fast, we then reached Holland. I noticed that they are pretty keen on Windmills and Wind Turbines.. Before I knew it, we were dropping, down, down, and then I saw the run way, the plane bounched a little and then rolled until we were at the right speed to move and stop. We got off the plane, walked through the airport, not needing to collect any luggage, as it had gone by trailer, and made our way to passport control. My tern in line, the man on the passport control took like 3 minutes starring at my passport and me before he finally decided that it was me, and let me through. Woo! I was in Holland! Then after everyone was through, we walked down to the train station, and just missed the train we wanted. So we waited for another 30 minutes, as the leaders, and I (because of Jedimca0's pre-trip research), for the next train on that route. There was one halfway through our wait, but we would of had to change train alot, and honestly, waiting was shorter. We then saw our train, and jumped on. Double-decker train! Thats something you don't see back home! We had an hour train ride, booorinng.. played a few card games, had a few embarrassing photo's taken (and then took care of them..), finally we reached the station, with one of the leaders literally had to push someone off the train, for good reason, as soon as they jumped off, the train doors snapped shut and the train started moving. Another small wait, while 2 of the leaders worked out what bus we had to catch. That was funny, all the locals started getting off the buses when they saw this hoard of children in Red Fleeces (yes, I'll photo that and show it to you), get on their buses. We then got off our bus, and walked for 10 minutes, where we were met by the other 2 leaders and collected our luggage. We opened camp then went inside with out bags. We made our beds and organized our kit. Then we had dinner, cooked by the dutch leaders. Mince, tortilla wraps, and some vegetables, including alot of beans (uuckk..), I didnt eat much that night. After that, we went to bed. I didnt sleep to well, from a kind of gut pain that I've had for a while (yes, I should go see a doctor..) and the headache (still!). ---- Read the rest of the 12 day report, in June